Jaxon at 6 months

Jaxon is now 6 months old. He weighs just over 16 lbs and is 27 1/2 inches long. He is wearing size 9 months in most things and 12 months in others. The funny thing is that while he needs a 9-12 month one piece outfit, he can still wear pants that are size 3 months. His length is mainly in his torso. He has developed little chubby thighs and a little chunky butt...so adorable!


I'm amazed at all he can do. He communicates his wants and needs very well. He grabs at my shirt or buries his head in my chest when he wants to eat. He has a sort of fussy sound he makes after he poops that lets us know when he needs to be changed. He hates to have a dirty diaper! He makes a different fussing sound when he wants to be held. He certainly knows how to get what he wants!


He is moving around in his own little way. He crawls on his belly, mostly using his legs to push himself. He is pretty quick at it, especially on the hardwood floors. He is trying to pull up on the coffee table from his stomach. I think that he really wants to just skip crawling and go straight to walking. He cannot sit unassisted yet. I think that may be because I'm holding him so much and when I put him down, I always put him down on his tummy. So I'm trying to sit with him more on the floor to give him practice sitting up.


He adores balls and cars. He's such a boy! He loves to watch his big brother crash cars into each other. He just laughs and laughs. 

Playing on the floor of his brother's room

He also loves bath time. LOVES IT! He likes the pool, too, but there's something about the bath that just makes him so happy. He loves to be naked and being naked in water seems to be a great combination for him!

That red blur is his bath toy that he's waving around - he gets so excited!

He is terrified of hand dryers in public bathrooms. He gets a scared look on his face and bursts into tears every time he hears one. It's pitiful! 


He is much more tolerant of his sisters and brother than he used to be. He seems to actually enjoy their antics as long as he's not tired. 


He is not more tolerant of the car. He really does not like being strapped in for more than a few minutes and car rides are still not that fun for us. 

Smiling in the car seat -this is a rare sight

We have kind of taken a break on solids. I noticed he was spitting up more when he ate solids. So I felt like maybe he just wasn't quite ready. He still gets tastes of things sometimes but I'm not giving him solids on any regular basis. He does  love anything he can hold and eat or gnaw on. I found a Gerber snack called little crunchies that kind of dissolve in his mouth and he likes to hold those and munch on them while we are eating. 


He has no teeth yet, and I'm okay with that. He has an adorable little gummy smile! I'm going to miss it when he gets teeth. 

Irresistable!

He can say mama, which comes out more like "a-ma" but definitely refers to me. He usually only says it when I'm not in the room, as if he's calling me. Because he doesn't say it when I'm around, it took me more than a month to finally hear it once he started saying it and it is adorable. He can also say dada, but he doesn't do it often. I think he likes to hear his daddy beg for him to say it! His newest sound is a b sound that comes out as "bah", "beh", and "buh." I'm not sure what it refers to, but it's a cute little sound! And when he combines it with his mmm sound, which he often does, it sounds like he's singing Mmmbop by Hanson. It's hilarious. Then he laughs at us when we sing Mmmbop back to him. I love hearing him talk. It's probably my favorite part of this stage that he's at. 


I just can't believe he is growing so quickly! I wish he would slow down a little! It's all going by way too fast!

Our Van

The day before we left for Disney World, we had an accident. It was just Jason, Jaxon, and me in the van. Thankfully, we were all okay, though Jason's chest was hit by the steering wheel and he was very sore for a few days. I hit my leg and it was sore for a few days as well. Jaxon was safe in his car seat and cried when we hit but I think that was mostly in response to my reaction (I was sitting next to him and gasped). 

We were in a construction zone on the interstate trying to merge into oncoming traffic. The truck (a huge Best Buy delivery truck) went to merge, and so did we, but then they slammed their brakes on and we rammed right into the back of them. Hard. 

This is what it looked like:

Ouch.

I thought it looked worse when the truck moved and you could see the damage.

Our first thought was that our Disney trip was over before it had even started. The accident happened late in the afternoon -we were scheduled to leave the next day. Our van was definitely not driveable. We waited for the tow truck and then waited for a ride home.

We tried to rent a van, but since it was a weekend, we had some trouble. We drove an hour to a rental location that was open on Sundays. But when we got there, they wanted a copy of a utility bill (they had not told us that on the phone). Who knew? Apparently, they want to be sure you live where you say you live so that they are able to come to your house and get the car in case you don't return it. We didn't have a bill with us and didn't have time to get back home to get one and get back to the city where the rental place was, so we had to skip that. 

Thankfully, my husband's parents have a minivan that they loaned us so we were able to make our Disney trip after all (more on that in later posts). 

While we were at Disney this past week, we got the call from the insurance adjuster. <Side note: we use Geico and they have been really great through this whole process.> Anyway, so the adjuster told us that our van is totaled. They are sending us a check in the mail. Thankfully, they were fair with their price. My brother (who works for Honda) said I wouldn't want a rebuilt van, because anytime something has been damaged that much it's never the same once it's been fixed. But I am still sad. I think it will be hard to find a used replacement that's as nice as what we had before. On the plus side, the van had over 120K on it, so we might can get something with lower mileage. 

So now we are car shopping. I would like a Honda since that's what we had before and loved. But Hondas have pretty good resell value so it may not be in our price range, not to mention all the ones I have found so far are in terrible colors. The catch here is that we have to get something pretty quickly because right now we can't all go anywhere together without borrowing a car because we can't fit the 6 of us in our other car.  

If you have a minivan, what kind do you have and what do you like (or not like) about it? 

Winner of the Fuzzibunz giveaway!

Congratulations to Heather Mahan who won the Fuzzibunz one size cloth diaper! She has already replied and sent me her address, so I'll be getting that in the mail to her today!


A lots of you guys were very excited about the diaper giveaway so I'll be doing another one soon. What type of diaper would you like to see me give away next?  


Also, don't forget that the Lovable Labels and Babybond giveaways are ending this week! Both are low entries right now so you have a great chance at winning!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Lovable Labels Review and Giveaway

When my kids were in daycare, and later, in elementary school, I had to label everything. Bags, bottles, sippy cups, jackets, a change of clothes, notebooks, binders, folders - everything has to be labeled. I bought permanent markers to write my daughter's name on everything, but quickly got tired of how it washed off her bottles, bowls, and cups. 


I searched online for the answer and found a great company in Canada who solved my problem. I ordered a pack of labels for my daughter and one for my then newborn son. That was 7 years ago - I've been using Lovable Labels to label their gear ever since. The labels stick on your kids stuff and they don't come off until you want them to. No more losing things or repeatedly labeling things. We still use our labels, for everything from their water bottles to their iPod headphones (to tell them apart). This lets me know who is leaving their headphones laying around on the coffee table. 

I was recently sent a pack of Lovable Labels new "Book Worm" labels, just in time for the new school year. This pack of 36 labels is meant for labeling books, but you could easily use them to label binders and notebooks. 

We have a family library of books, but each child also has their own special books. Alex loved being able to label all her books! I'll probably have to order labels for each of the other kids once they realize her books have personalized labels inside!

The newest products from Lovable Labels include address labels, Date It Labels for labeling things like food in your freezer and Toddler Toes. I love the Toddler Toes - they go inside each of your toddler's shoes to help your child learn their right from left foot and the label also provides a place for your cel phone number to be printed in case of an emergency. Whatever your labeling needs, Lovable Labels has you covered!


WANT? You can purchase Lovable Labels on their website at www.lovablelabels.ca 


WIN! Want to win some labels of your own? Lovable Labels is offering one of my readers their very own personalized Book Worm labels!

Need Help Nursing in Public? Babybond Review and Giveaway

I like nursing Jaxon. I enjoy watching his little face while he nurses. Often he'll close his eyes while he nurses, but when he's not tired, he'll just look up at me with his big beautiful eyes. Sometimes when I smile at him, he'll giggle or smile back. It's a special time for us. 


I also like going places. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those women who can pull their shirt up and nurse discreetly. So I usually cover Jaxon with a blanket when I nurse in public. But it's been so hot here, anywhere from 85-100 degrees this summer! After only a few minutes of nursing, he emerges from underneath even a lightweight blanket with a red face. I feel so bad for him. Even inside, it's not fun to nurse under a blanket and I miss being able to see his sweet face when I have him covered up. 


Enter the BabyBond nursing cover!


The BabyBond covers mom, not her baby! I chose the BabyBond Couture, which can be used two ways: as a sash, covering my breast when I feed from the top of the shirt or as a belly band, covering my stomach as I lift my shirt to feed him. I chose the BabyBond Couture because I usually don't feed from the top of my shirt: I only have a few shirts that are cut low enough for me to be able to do that. The Couture works with whatever shirt I'm wearing. The color I chose, Riviera, is beautiful! My lighting is bad in my pictures, but it's a really beautiful blue that looks so great with Jaxon's eyes!


Here is what I see when I wear the BabyBond as a sash:

And here is what everyone around me sees: a baby snuggled up against his mommy, nothing more!

Jaxon likes the BabyBond...it's very soft and he likes to rub it. He also loves not having to be under a blanket. I like that it rolls up into itself and doesn't take up much space in my bag. 


It is very easy to use as a belt/belly band. It essentially just wraps around your stomach and tucks into itself. But I will warn you, there is somewhat of a learning curve when you are using it as a sash. Don't attempt it for the first time in public. Try it out at home a couple of times first. The great thing is, once you do it a couple of times, it will start to come naturally. Also, BabyBond has videos on their website showing how to correctly use the BabyBond. The videos really helped me. To help you if you are out and suddenly get confused, there are also directions sewn into the label of the BabyBond. 


WANT? Want your own Babybond? Use code "SHAKY" to receive 25% off anything on the Babybond website!


WIN! Use the easy Rafflecopter entry system below to win the BabyBond cover of your choice!

Wordless Wednesday - Donut Thief

He grabbed the chocolate iced donut off my plate, and this was the result. 

He looks pretty pleased with himself, doesn't he? 

Disney World!

We're going to Disney World in less than 2 weeks. We had originally planned to go in September because the crowd levels are lower that week. But with lower crowds come shorter hours and we couldn't get any dining reservations that we wanted. We also found out Magic Kingdom was closing at 7 on several of the days we were going to be there due to the Not So Scary Halloween Party (requires a separate ticket that we were not going to purchase). 


We had planned to go to the beach in August, so we began tossing around the idea of switching the dates of the two trips and going to the beach in September instead. I started looking on the WDW website and was able to secure a dining reservation for a princess breakfast and that kind of sealed the deal for me. The crowd levels will be higher than they would be in September, but not as crazy as they were when we took the kids to Disney on Spring Break 2 years ago.  


I'm so excited and so is Jason. I think we like Disney as much as the kids do, maybe even more! 


My only concern is the heat. I think the older three kids will be okay. They play outside in this heat all the time. We'll be taking in our water bottles (you can refill these at water fountains and counter service restaurants will give you ice if you ask). I just don't do too well in heat and Jaxon seems to have inherited that tendency. He seems to wilt when we're outside for more than 30 minutes. I think I'll be nursing him a lot. I'll probably wear him in the Ergo some, so he can nurse while we walk, but I think for the most part, he'll be cooler (and therefore more comfortable) in the stroller. I think we are going to get a little clip on battery powered fan to attach to his stroller. Thankfully, many Disney rides have air conditioned queues, and there are several indoor attractions. I also plan to take advantage of the Baby Care Centers this time around to allow Jaxon some downtime while the big kids ride some things with Jason. The Baby Care Centers have rocking chairs, changing tables, and a breastfeeding room...all air conditioned, of course. 


I'm planning to use our cloth diapers at Disney. Am I crazy for that? I can't find any information or posts from people who have done this before, so I might be. I originally toyed with the idea of getting disposable inserts for my Gro-Via and Charlie Banana diapers to make things easier, but with the trip coming up so quickly, I wasn't sure I'd have time to try them out enough before we go. I didn't want to start a whole new diaper routine on the trip, so it's actually easier for me to stick with what we normally do.


I've already started packing. I'm one of those pack for 2 weeks type of people.  We have a huge stroller that takes up a good chunk of space. We would like to be able to recline the back seat for the kids so they'll sleep for most of our 10 hour + drive down to Orlando (we're starting our drive at 6:30 pm). Those two things really cut into my space. So I am trying to keep clothes for the 6 of us to one suitcase. Then I'll also have the diaper bag and the wet/dry bag filled with diapers. We also have a friend going with us so her bag will take up some space too. Anyway, so packing is a bit of a challenge for me at this point! I have more to share about Disney in another post, including some tips for how to make Disney easier with young kids!

Fuzzibunz Giveaway

I'm giving away a Fuzzibunz one size cloth diaper in Buttercream! It's really easy to enter using Rafflecopter!

Prefense Review and Giveaway

I will admit I'm a little bit of a germaphobe. I wasn't like this before I had kids. But I hate when the kids are sick, and so I try to do everything I can to keep them from picking up illness. I've been especially concerned since Jaxon has been here.  We are always on the go and the kids have ample opportunities to pick up germs from their friends, playground equipment and public restrooms. I'm always reminding them to wash their hands and I normally carry alcohol based hand sanitizer with me and dispense it as necessary.  


So, naturally, when I discovered Prefense I was intrigued. Prefense contains no alcohol and  and lasts all day, up to 24 hours or 10 hand washings. Isn't that amazing? The active ingredient in Prefense is AMOSILQ. I looked this ingredient up - it is serious stuff! I found out that hospitals use AMOSILQ to prevent the spread of MRSA, so you know it must be pretty powerful, yet it's non-toxic and safe for kids. Once applied, Prefense kills germs on contact and forms an invisible barrier on the skin to protect from new germs for up to 24 hours or 10 hand washings. This is the perfect thing to have your kids apply to their hands before they leave for school each morning! 

We received the 1.5 oz bottle of Prefense and we really like it. The bottle is a good size. It's great for the diaper bag or your purse. While 1.5 oz may not sound like a lot, it contains 120 sprays. Since you only need 1 spray a day, it will last you a while. It's colorless, doesn't stain clothes, and has a light pleasant smell (my kids said it smelled somewhat citrusy). My husband is very sensitive to perfumes and he was surprised to find that he did not mind the smell of Prefense. Prefense also contains botanicals that soothe dry skin and prevent chapping. 


The only downside I've found to using Prefense is that now when I tell my kids to wash their hands, they don't want to. They just tell me that they have the "germ free all day" stuff on their hands. I keep telling them that while it may keep their hands germ free, it doesn't keep them chocolate free, dirt free, or spaghetti sauce free! We will be taking Prefense with us on our trip to Disney World. I'm looking forward to keeping everyone well with the help of Prefense. 


The 1.5 oz bottle of Prefense retails for $6.99, but right now you can get a combo pack that contains the 1.5 oz bottle AND a container of hand and face sanitizing wipes for just $7.99! That's a great deal that would normally cost you almost $14. You can purchase Prefense products from Amazon but you can get great deals, like the combo I mentioned, by purchasing directly from Prefense.

Want to try it before you buy it? You can win the big 8 oz bottle here (good for 640 sprays!). Enter using Rafflecopter below!

Upcoming Giveaways!

I've been very quiet this week because I've not been feeling well at all! Every minute I had to sit down I was holding and feeding Jaxon or helping the kids with school. I was tired and my wrist was sore for no known reason. It's been hurting for weeks and has gotten worse and I had finally decided to break down and go to the doctor next week. While normally I can blog while nursing, my wrist was so sore that it hurt to do almost anything, including typing and fastening the snaps on Jaxon's diapers. But I woke up yesterday morning with no pain! I have no idea why it went away all of a sudden like that, but I'm so so so very glad it did.


Anyway, the main reason for this post is to announce the giveaways I'm hosting! I will post several next week. I'm going to be giving away a Starbucks gift card and a Fuzzibunz cloth diaper! I'm also very excited to be hosting giveaways for Lovable Labels and Babybond! Follow me on Facebook and Twitter to stay updated on when each giveaway is posted!

The Baby Store Plus is closing!

The Baby Store Plus is going out of business! Owner Anna is retiring while she's still young enough to enjoy it! We're all sad to see Anna go, but there is one bit of good news: she's having a HUGE sale on everything in the store and she carries lots of great stuff!

Use code "RETIRE2012" to get 25% off everything in the store! EVERYTHING in the store has been marked down by 25%, with many items marked down by 30-35% and some as much as 50%! No need for any special codes!

She's also offering free shipment for all orders over $75!

And, while supplies last, if you ASK for it in the comment box at checkout, and your order is over $25 after discounts are applied, she will include a free set of Sippy Straw Cleaners with your order.

Follow Anna on Facebook for additional flash sales and discount codes!